#i wanted to do something that talked about our fav Atla mentor of all times Iroh

[sopaipillasvoladoras]

Heyyy I was undecided in between drawing or writing a (short) fic based on this one really specific image I had in my head. So I decided to do both! HA.

Happy @zutaraweek day 4: Mentor 💖 (we're in day five already but I dont careeeee)

___________________

After Zuko recovered from Azula’s lightning, or recovered enough to move around, he tried to resume his training, however slowly.

At first he did easy exercises. As uncle Iroh said once, it's good to go back to the basics sometimes. Or something like that.

But as Zuko's training became stronger and more complex, he felt as if his bending was resisting him. Something was off, his fire bending felt wrong.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on it; it was strange, by all means his health was getting better, Katara’s healing had been helping tremendously. He should be fine. He was fine. But when he tried to firebend it would always come out wrong.

Flames erupted from Zuko’s feet, from his fists, but he couldn’t sustain them. The more he tried the more he got dizzy, and a painful tug in his gut pined him to the ground.

Somehow he knew it all came back to Azula's lightning, to the faulty way he had tried to redirect it. So he told the one person he knew could definitely help him; Uncle Iroh.

"I'm afraid I cannot help you this time nephew-"

Zuko choked on his tea "WHAT? BUT- Uncle! You invented this technique! If, if you don't know then who could possibly-?!"

Zuko went on for a while, walking in circles while the old man stroked his beard. He paitenly waited for his nephew's anxiety rant to end.

"Zuko, I developed this technique by studying waterbender masters. Are you not friend with the Avatar and a waterbender master, who is also a skilled healer? If something is wrong with the flow of energy inside you then they ought to know more than what I have to say about it"

Zuko stopped dead on his tracks. Oh. Oohhhhh. He felt stupid. It was so obvious!

Zuko smiled at his uncle, letting the soothing feeling of his old, familiar presence wash his anxiety away. His uncle was right, it was going to be ok, he had just the right people to help him.

"Thank you Uncle"

-x-

Katara was surprised at first when Zuko asked her to teach him waterbending.

"Techniques, I mean, the basics, at least. Please." He seemed a bit embarrased and stumbled with his words, but she could understand the logic once Zuko explained about the lightning redirection.

"Oh, I see. That makes sense, I think. There's no harm in trying either."

So that same afternoon they went to a big, secluded pond from one of the many in the palace gardens, where they wouldn't be bothered.

Katara patienly revised the basics of waterbending with Zuko, trying to remember how to explain as much as she could something that was second nature to her by now.

At first Zuko had a hard time grasping at the way Katara talked about her bending, she made it seem easy and it all made sense as she moved in syncrony with the waves and ripples she created. But for Zuko it was a whole different thing. Of course it would have probably helped him if he could actually feel and see how all the movements he did over and over again had an effect on the water, but he was no waterbender after all.

Zuko couldn't help sulking and frowning through his new trainig, it was frustrating and he felt silly when nothing happened after all the swinging and twirling of his hands and feet. It was just so diffrent from what he was used to; the straight and rooted positions of firebending. Waterbending was all about swiflty shifting, flowing from a position to another seamlessly.

Despite Zuko's obvious lack of talent for waterbending, Katara was having fun and showed just how much of a good teacher she was. She was kind but unafraid of calling Zuko out on his mistakes. Her hands kept moving all over him, adjusting his stand, drawing paths with her fingers over his skin, describing the flow of energy, gently guiding him through the motions. Katara's feet guided Zuko's under the water, and every now and then he could feel a current of water moving his steps in the right direction.

It took them the best part of the afternoon, but Zuko was finally starting to understand it.

“Like this?” he said trying to flow through the motions instead of just swinging his arms back and forth.

"Yes, almost. But try to do it like this..." One of Katara's hands pressed softly over one of his wrist "...Lower this hand, just, relax...." While her other hand pressed firmly over his stomach "Do you feel it? Right here, the flow of energy”

"Yes." There was heat pooling in his stomach, and he felt as if his body was gradually charging. Zuko was suddenly very much aware of all of himself, the way the water felt against his skin, how his toes burried in the sand, the heavyness of his wet clothing, the pressure of Katara's hand, he could feel it all.

"Great! Now try channeling that energy, like this"

As soon as Katara's hand moved away to show him the motions, the feeling started to fade away.

"Sorry, I... I think I lost it"

It was frustraing. He had been so close.

"That's ok." Katara looked around, the light was quickly dimming around them. "We can try again tomorrow, it's getting late. Same time, same place?"

"Right, tomorrow."

Before Katara could walk away Zuko stopped her

"Katara?"

"Yeah?"

Zuko corrected his posture, he stood tall and then bended in a perfect bow. "Thank you, sifu Katara"

A giggle made Zuko stand straight again. His eyes quickly found Katara; she was blushing, but seemed amused all the same. For a breif moment he felt that same electricity run through his body again.

"I actually really like the sound of that" she said smugly. With a playful smile Katara took a bow too, "No problem pupil Zuko"

He liked the sound of that too.

_____________________

P.D. It took Zuko a few more lessons to realize that, despite his bending was getting better again, whatever he felt during lessons had little to do with waterbending a lot more to do with the waterbender.